Sci Fi TV Week in Review: Johnny Jay’s irreverent, snarky, and caffeine-fueled look back at the past week in sci fi TV in five minutes or less.
What the Hell is happening? What the Hell is happening?!?!? The CW cancelled shows, a lot of them. They don’t do that! And Syfy uncancelled a show? They certainly don’t do that! Are we in the Bizarro world or something? It’s a madhouse! A Maaadddhouse!!!
So The CW was once the home to about a billion Arrow-verse shows and other genre entries that had lots of young pretty people in them. And the network used to renew its shows pretty much every year. Like, all of them. (Okay, one or two of them might get sent to the network executioner from time to time.) But that network, which is joint-owned Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, is going through a sale and the people who are currently in charge decided this was a great time to do a slash and burn on the network’s inventory of shows.
Legends of Tomorrow and Batwoman already fell two weeks ago, and this week Legacies, Charmed, Naomi, 4400, and Roswell New Mexico got sent to the Network Executioner as well. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the decision was to only keep the shows that were profitable. So do you want to explain to me how low-rated Riverdale and Nancy Drew didn’t get the ax? And one more season for both Legacies and Charmed would get them an extended life in syndication where shows really turn a profit. But both have now had their episode count cut short and likely will not have the chance to resolve all their storylines. Are you really telling there’s any sense to what is going on at that network?
Meanwhile, there are strange things happening over at Syfy. After dropping the supernatural dramedy SurrealEstate on the schedule last Summer with no notice, the network cancelled it at the end of its first season due to low viewership. But now they have had a change of heart and will be bringing it back for a second season. (It really is a sleeper of a genre entry, and I recommend checking it out.) Did they all of a sudden hire people at the network that care about the programming and the viewers? Don’t let them talk to anybody at The CW right now, because those guys have lost touch with all common sense.
What’s more, Syfy has added a sci fi show to its schedule! They have given the greenlight to The Ark which comes from Stargate alum Dean Devlin. The show takes place on a colony ship named Ark One that encounters a catastrophic event that endangers its mission. Sounds interesting, and for the first time in a while there are two shows on this network I am looking forward to. (And I may even give Resident Alien another try.)
Meanwhile back at The CW, while that network is cancelling shows left and right it has also added a couple of new genre entries. Apparently they realized they had to have something on the schedule for the upcoming season.
The first of those two is the Supernatural spin-off series The Winchesters. That is not to be confused with the previously planned Supernatural spin-off Bloodlines which aired as a back-door pilot on the parent series and almost nobody liked. (I actually thought it showed promise.) It is also not to be confused with the other planned Supernatural spin-off Wayward Sisters that aired as a back-door pilot on the parent series and that everybody liked. There was even an online petition to convince The CW to pick it up to series that pulled in over 85K people signed. But no, the network passed on that and now they are giving us the prequel series The Winchesters which will star the voice of Jensen Ackles as he narrates the story of how his mom and pop met and become Hunters.
Also joining The CW’s schedule is the Batman-series-without-Batman Gotham Knights which takes place after the murder of Bruce Wayne (err . . . spoiler alert?) as his son and several villains in Gotham try to clear their names while also forming a new group of heroes. This is not to be confused with, nor is it linked to, the Batman-series-without-Batman Gotham which aired for five seasons on FOX and followed a young James Gordan and a young Bruce Wayne (the latter in training to be Batman). It is also not to be confused with the Batman-series-without-Batman Pennyworth which follows Alfred Pennyworth in his younger years when he was a secret agent and which has no links to the shows above. It is also not connected to the Batman-series-without-Batman Batwoman (though it comes from the same writers) where Kate Kane (then Ryan Wilder) takeover fighting crime in Gotham City after Batman disappears. It is also not to be confused with the upcoming Batman-series-without-Batman Penguin which is headed to HBO Max and is a spin-off of The Batman and focuses on the titular villain and has no ties to the shows above. Gotham Knights is the other Batman-series-without-Batman with no tie to the shows above.
There were more renewals and cancellations this past week as Amazon renewed the cyber-dramedy Upload for a third season, Starz renewed the supernatural dramedy Shining Vale for a second season, and Hulu cancelled the animated Marvel series MODOK after one season. That latter cancellation came almost one year after the show premiered. Great way to stay on top of things Hulu!
In schedule announcements, HBO has set June 26th as the premiere date for Westworld Season 4. FX has set July 12th as the premiere date for the fourth season of What We Do in the Shadows and July 21st as the premiere date for second season American Horror Stories (not to be confused with American Horror Story) and the latter will actually stream on Hulu and will not air on FX. (Don’t ask, I don’t get it either.) Coming up is the premiere of The Time Traveler’s Wife on HBO on May 15th, the return of Love Death + Robots for its third season on Netflix on May 20th, and the premiere of Night Sky on Amazon on May 20th. You can see all the premieres for May and beyond at this link and you can see the Weekly Listings here. We also got a new trailer for Westworld Season 4, The Orville Season 3 and for Netflix’s First Kill this week. All of those are below.
Did I miss anything? Probably because I’m still in shock from all those cancellations, so let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to keep up with the news during the week with This Week in Sci Fi TV and r/SciFiTV.
Trailers
Westworld (HBO): This show returns to HBO for its fourth season which premieres June 26th.
The Orville (Hulu): The crew of The Orville return for a whole new set of adventures in the upcoming third season which premieres June 2nd.
First Kill (Netflix): You never forget your first. Teenage vampire Juliette sets her sights on a new girl in town Calliope for her first kill. But much to Juliette’s surprise, Calliope is a vampire hunter. Both find that the other won’t be so easy to kill and, unfortunately, way too easy to fall for… Premieres June 10th.
SciFiTVSite.com: Follow our Sci Fi TV Schedule for all the currently airing and upcoming sci fi and fantasy television shows, and keep up with what is airing/streaming each week with our Weekly Listings.
CancelledSciFi.com: Keep up with the status updates of all the currently airing sci fi and fantasy shows with our Sci Fi TV Update posts. And be sure to follow the Cancelled Sci Fi Twitter Site for breaking news and updates.
